Heretofore, tenons such as male dovetails have been cut in the ends of workpieces such as the wooden boards which are used as drawer sides, by holding the workpiece stationary while a cutter head having many (15 for example) rotary dovetail cutter mills will gyrate in paths around the ends of the workpieces to produce the dovetails. The entire cutting head gyrates in the path which typically is in the shape of a figure 9. In such prior art machine, the cutter head typically weighs upward of 500 pounds and the mass, momentum and inertia of the heavy cutter head during its gyrating motion while forming the dovetails must be contained and controlled. This requires a substantial and heavy physical machine structure with corresponding increased expense.